Romantic Comedy 1983

Jason Kramer [Dudley Moore] is a popular New York City playwright in desperate need of a fresh writing partner who can provide him with inspiration. Phoebe Craddock [Mary Steenburgen] is a small-town teacher who aspires to be a writer.

On the day Jason Kramer [Dudley Moore] is marrying Allison St. James [Janet Eilber], a wealthy socialite who runs for political office, he meets Phoebe Craddock [Mary Steenburgen], who is stripping naked in front of him when he mistakes her for a masseuse.

They embark on a professional partnership, and over the course of the next nine years they produce a string of plays, with a mix of successes and misfires. They discover a mutual attraction but keep their relationship professional for most of the time, aside from a single out-of-town one-nighter that the aloof Jason fails to acknowledge the next morning.

As years pass, Jason’s marriage suffers as Allison pursues public life. Blanche Dailey [Frances Sternhagen] remains a constant, mothering presence as the years go by. Jason is still a husband and a father, while Phoebe stays a close family friend. Yet his career and reputation take a hit when he has a fling with a pushy Hollywood actress, Kate Mallory [Robyn Douglass], and, at her request, alters a new play.

Jason’s world begins to unravel after his wife divorces him, and Phoebe marries newspaper reporter Leo Jessup [Ron Leibman]. Phoebe moves away, ends their professional partnership, and goes on to become a successful author. When they are reunited for the first time in years, Jason starts a heated argument with Phoebe in a restaurant and suffers a heart attack.

Back at home, Jason does everything in his power to sabotage Phoebe’s marriage while she moves in to care for him. Leo can plainly see that his wife is in love with Jason and perhaps always has been, so he leaves her. In the end, Phoebe invites Jason to try a new kind of collaboration.